Friday, April 5, 2013

March 30, 2013

Last Saturday was absolutely gorgeous - sunshine, blue skies and water temperature was 8 1/2 C. It almost felt like Spring was out for a stroll. Matt brought the GoPro to our regular stomping grounds to try and document our route.

Starting out. Tucked in between Whytecliff and Copper Cove is a small bay. We start out here and swim South West following the rock cliffs until we see the marker to the entrance to Whytecliff.

I am still trying to get used to swimming in a wetsuit. A weird problem that has come up has been that my hands overheat. It sounds so ridiculous but I seriously can't stand how hot my hands get. When we made it into Whytecliff I swam into the beach, pulled off my gloves and threw them onto the rocks. Luckily Matt was there to retrieve them. The rest of the swim was much more pleasant, and the cold water on my hands helped to cool me down all over. Much better.

Below is a fantastic view of Whytecliff Bay, with the islet and Bachelor Bay in
the background. We swim in toward the beach and swim parallel to it,
out past and then around the islet and continue.

Here we're coming out of Bachelor Bay and heading back to the head of the islet. The swims usually finish at Whytecliff and the total route is 3.1km.

We've got plans to increase our distances this Spring and Summer, preparing for the marathon-length Bay Challenge in July. This spot makes it easy as we can continue to swim to the coves that dot the coastline and then we can turn around and go all the way to the beginning and beyond to Copper Cove. We can each customise the distance we swim because there are so many convenient exit spots that lead back to the park and the cars.